Such a state of affairs was a golden opportunity to a man in Cromwell’s position and of Cromwell’s talents. To Wolsey, whose mind had been intent on the larger schemes of his foreign policy, the notion of staving off the hatred of the influential people about the King by gifts of money, would never have occurred. Cromwell hit upon the scheme in a moment, as the only sure road to favour at the Court[156]. Now that Wolsey had surrendered himself almost wholly to the counsels of his painstaking, watchful, close and wholly unscrupulous adviser, Cromwell immediately persuaded him to grant annuities to the Court favourites. The casual reader must not deceive himself into thinking that this was done at Wolsey’s own suggestion; the measure was too evidently Cromwellian to leave any room to doubt its originator, and if any further proof be needed, it is furnished by evidence in the Cardinal’s papers. In a letter to Cromwell written in December, 1529, Wolsey says, ‘Yf the desspleasure of my lady Anne be [some]what asswagyd, as I praye God the same maye be, then yt shuld [be devised t]hat by sume convenyent meane she be further laboryd [for th]ys ys the only helpe and remedy. All possyble meanes [must be used for] atteynyng of hyr favor .......... I comyt me to yower wyse handling[157].’ In the same month Cromwell made out the draft of a grant by Wolsey to George Boleyn, Knight, Viscount Rochford, son and heir apparent of Thomas Earl of Wiltshire and Ormond, bestowing on him an annuity of £200 out of the lands of the bishopric of Winchester, and a similar gift of £200 out of the abbey lands of St. Albans[158]. Another letter from Wolsey to Cromwell in January, 1530, says that, according to his servant’s advice, he has had Mr. Norris’s fee increased from £100 to £200, and would like to have Sir John Russell’s annuity of £20 made 40 or 50, if Cromwell thinks it expedient[159].